Iraq: SAIC Pays DOD Settlementby Rachel Sams, Baltimore Business JournalMarch 25th, 2004
Defense contractor Science Applications International Corp. has agreed to pay $484,500 to settle allegations it violated the False Claims Act when designing a computer system program for the U.S. Department of Defense.

US: Report Finds Halliburton Violated Contracting Rulesby Seth Borenstein, Knight Ridder March 11th, 2004Halliburton, the big contractor that's won the lion's share of government contracts to rebuild Iraq, significantly and systematically violated federal contracting rules by providing inaccurate and incomplete information about its own costs, according to a special report by Defense Department auditors.

US: Ex-Halliburton Workers Allege Rampant Wasteby T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times February 13th, 2004Halliburton has systematically wasted U.S. taxpayer dollars in its operations in Iraq and Kuwait, according to two of the company's former employees who have spoken to congressional investigators.

World: America's Empire of Basesby Chalmers Johnson, Tom PaineJanuary 15th, 2004Due to government secrecy, our citizens are often ignorant of the fact that our garrisons encircle the planet. This vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a new form of empire – an empire of bases with its own geography not likely to be taught in any high school geography class. Without grasping the dimensions of this globe-girdling Baseworld, one can't begin to understand the size and nature of our imperial aspirations or the degree to which a new kind of militarism is undermining our constitutional order.

US: Contractors Complain of TSA Limitsby Sara Kehaulani Goo, Washington Post November 21st, 2003A pilot program to test the effectiveness of privately employed screeners at U.S. airports is yielding few security innovations or cost savings because of constraints imposed by the Transportation Security Administration, government investigators and private contractors said.

Iraq: The Pentagon's Private Corpsby Julian Brookes, MotherJones.com October 22nd, 2003Washington has long outsourced work to private firms. What's new is the size and variety of contracts being doled out, particularly by the Pentagon. Private military companies now do more than simply build airplanes -- they maintain those planes on the battlefield and even fly them; construct detention camps in Guantanamo Bay, pilot armed reconnaissance planes and helicopter gunships to eradicate coca crops in Colombia; and operate the intelligence and communications systems at the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado -- work that brings the various companies an estimated $100 billion a year.

Iraq: Nation Builders for Hireby Dan Baum, New York Times magazineJune 22nd, 2003When Dwight Eisenhower warned in 1961 of the ''military-industrial complex,'' he never imagined the regimental descendants of Monty's boys at El Alamein tenting in the desert to baby-sit corporadoes earning $10,000 tax-free a month. This, however, is modern might. The military has become the industrial, and vice versa.

Afghanistan: World Bank and Central Asian Pipeline Agence France-Presse May 15th, 2002World Bank chief James Wolfensohn said Wednesday he had held talks about financing a fuel pipeline to channel massive gas reserves from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to India or Pakistan. Wolfensohn, who was in the Afghan capital to open the financial institution's offices here and to confirm 100 million dollars of World Bank grants for the interim administration, said a number of companies had already expressed an interest in the project.